Battle Droid (Security) - POTJ - Basic

Droid soldiers serving the Trade Federation, battle droids are emotionless warriors who follow their masters' orders without question. Security droids, programmed to guard Trade Federation bases and prisoners, are only one type of battle droid.

For more than a few collectors, the Episode I Battle Droids were hardly something to get excited about because they lacked the fluidity that these characters possessed in the film. They may have marched statically like an army of soldiers, but when it came down to the nuts and bolts of battle, they were quite agile and could assume more than the standard position in war. Hasbro wanted to keep the Separatist droids a staple in the basic figure line, but eager to take the Battle Droid sculpt to new and exciting levels, they sculpted an all-new body for the Power Of The Jedi line. Not a standard infantry battle droid, they painted this one in the colors of the Battle Droid (Security) specialists. These droids could be seen in the beginning of Episode I after TC-14 walks out to a hoard of battle droids who are waiting in eager anticipation to kill to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn after TC-14’s ironic gesture of hospitality. Uniqueness is something most Star Wars collectors love, and it was awesome to get this style of Battle Droid in the action figure line so soon after the Episode I film. Although it comes with an action feature, it’s a well done one that actually makes the figure a little more interesting.

Battle Droid (Security) comes with an astounding 10 points of articulation. A ball-socket head is joined by hinge-jointed shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. Then a demure action figure lever has been added that allows you to lift its arms up while holding the droid blaster. Surprisingly, the action feature works quite well. Because of all the articulation this figure possesses, you’re really able to attain quite a few incredible poses with this figure. The Battle Droid (Security) action figure has realistic moving parts and they’ve been designed in a way to favor the character we saw onscreen, even if the figure is limited in the number of diverse poses you can position. The sculpt is dynamic. We don’t think the B1 battle droid has looked better in the basic figure line. It would be great if Hasbro could make the standard tan infantry Battle Droid in this sculpt and then give us the variations all over again, but it looks like for now they have their sights set on the Security version for now. Although the Battle Droid (Security) figure has upper body articulation, its arms are sort of in a permanent “holding the droid blaster” position. But that’s OK, because this character looks awesome doing that alone.

If we had a preference, we would have encouraged Hasbro to abandon any form of action features in their basic figure line. But Hasbro met kids and collectors in the middle because the lever isn’t terribly obtrusive for this release. Aside from no ankle articulation, we think that the Battle Droid (Security) is a pretty remarkable release and it has set the bar pretty high for future B1 battle droid action figures. We should also mention that the paint job on Battle Droid (Security) is also awesome. It’s simple, but there are some instances of dirt accumulation on the figure. We saw the security battle droids throughout Episode I, but they mostly were visible in relatively “clean” places and not really part of direct battle, so it makes sense that the action figure would also have a relatively clean paint job. All in all, we think Hasbro created a pretty nice action figure here. The Battle Droid (Security) figure can hold the droid blaster believably, stand unassisted and you can pose it in some pretty cool poses. We think that can be interpreted as a successful action figure. And although the Power Of The Jedi line is repeated some characters from the Episode I, Hasbro is undeniably making long strides of improvement with each release.